Computer Virus

A computer virus is a coded computer program that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge. A computer virus can copy itself over and over and over. All computer viruses are manmade. The term virus is also mistakenly used to refer to other types of malware(malicious software) such as adware and spyware programs. Because neither of these programs is able to reproduce, they are not considered to be viruses; only malicious software. Adware is an advertising support software. It automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer .

These are usually harmless but sometimes can come integrated with a privacy-invasive software. Spyware on the other hand is basically what its name implies. It is a type of malware installed on computers to collect small pieces of information about users without permission or knowledge. A true computer virus can spread from one computer to another when a user sends its host over the network, internet or it is carried on a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or a USB drive. In other words a virus must piggyback on top of some other program or document in order to launch.

Traditional viruses were first seen in the late 1980s. Before then computers were mostly used only by the government and large corporations. Because of the popularity of the PCs released by IBM and Apple in the early 1980s computers became more common in businesses, colleges, and households. Prior to then, most computers were locked up somewhere unaccessible to the public. Therefore the PC, being made accessible to the public played a major role in the creativity of virus. With the personal computer came the bulletin board . With a modem, people could dial up a bulletin board and download all sorts of programs. Remember, a virus needs a piggyback ride. The floppy disk also played a major role in computer viruses. Actually, the virus authors used the floppy disk to create the first replicating programs.

Computer viruses don't just happen.; they are written by people for various reasons. Sometimes they are written with the intention of being jokes, just for fun, or they are sometimes written with malicious intentions. All computer viruses are written or have been written by people. A person has to take the time to write the code for the virus, test it to make sure that it spreads properly and before it is released they also design an attack phase. Based on their behavior after they have been executed, viruses can be divided into two types. Nonresident viruses immediately searches for hosts that it can infest, infects those targets and finally transfers control over to the application program they infected. A resident virus, however ,does not search for hosts. Instead it loads itself into memory upon execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus remains active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself.

This is just a little information on computer viruses that I thought might be interesting. Of course, no one wants to contract a virus whether it is benign or damaging. Although they are scary, I still find them fascinating. Wait until I write my next article. It is going to give you an idea of just how intelligent a virus can be programmed to be.

So be safe and be sure to keep your anti-virus software updated.